Canon EF 35-80mm; really only £40???

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Jayceyned

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Morning guys,

Just come to the conclusion that I need a lens with a little note reach than 55mm & found on Amazon & eBay loads of the above lens for around £40, this sounds way too good to be true; am I missing something here?

It states AF too. Anyone have any knowledge of the lens?
 
Ps. I was thinking of the lens for playing around more with macro (in combination with extension tubes), does anyone know of a relatively low cost prime lens for Canon EF/-S of 50mm & above?
 
The 35-80 was often the standard kits lens sold with the old 35mm film SLR's and £40 is about par for the course. It works quite well as a macro lens when reverse mounted using an adapter.
I'd guess that the best VFM prime to use with tubes would be a 50/1.8.

Bob
 
Hey Bob,

Thanks for the info. Any reason why you wouldn't use it in combination with the extension tubes?
 
Jayceyned said:
Hey Bob,

Thanks for the info. Any reason why you wouldn't use it in combination with the extension tubes?
Click to expand...

The working distance range (from the end of the lens to the subject) becomes quite small before the magnification gets much above 0.75x.
There's only 22mm between minimum and maximum focus distance by the time you at 0.75x magnification when using it at 35mm.
You've got more to play with setting the lens to 80mm but then the magnification is far less as the tube to focal length ratio is less.

Edit....there are 3 versions of the 35-80mm and the number crunching varies a little but not significantly enough to choose between them.

Bob
 
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I bought a 35-80mm off ebay for under £20, as soon as I got it I pulled it apart and took the front element out to make a macro lens.
It works quite well.
 
Hi again Bob,

Have got to confess that I didn't really understand you last post = am a relative newbie, but don't worry = I'm not going to ask for an explanation; I will re-phrase my question though & hope you're not sick of my questioning yet:

I'm currently shooting macro/close-up withy standard kit lens (18-55) and extension tubes & have found that I'm having to get too close to my little friends (flies etc) to catch the I'm action often enough. Am I correct in thinking that the 35-80 will be better than my 18-55 for this as I should be able to 'zoom in' more with the lens and capture them when I'm physically a little further away?

Thanks for all your help, I really appreciate your time answering all of my questions.
 
Jayceyned said:
I'm currently shooting macro/close-up withy standard kit lens (18-55) and extension tubes & have found that I'm having to get too close to my little friends (flies etc) to catch the I'm action often enough. Am I correct in thinking that the 35-80 will be better than my 18-55 for this as I should be able to 'zoom in' more with the lens and capture them when I'm physically a little further away?
Click to expand...

The original 35-80 with 25mm of tube added will give you 56-106mm between the lens and subject (0.99-0.75x) whilst the MkIII will be 26-48mm for similar magnification. Adding more extension (tubes) will increase the magnification but shorten the working distance and reduce the span of the available distance between minimum and infinity focus settings.

It's not going to be a great deal different to your 18-55 unless you adapt and reverse it.

Ask away....that's why we're all here.

Bob
 
Hey, i know this is an old thread so i dont know if this will be helpfull.

I bought a 35-80mm a week ago soley for the puropse of modifying it into a macro lens, as a normal lens its pretty much on par with the 18-55, ok, nothing mind blowing, but with the front section removed it makes an awesome macro lens with a magnification of 0.8:1@35mm and 1.8:1@80mm


Soap Bubbles by Mark_Watkins, on Flickr


Vine Weevil by Mark_Watkins, on Flickr
 
How do you mean 'front section removed'?
 
Guess what I'm buying soon :)
 
lol thats exactly what i thought when i found out about it, certainly cant be beaten for the price, i got mine for £39 and it was mint condition.

Heres some basic info i put on flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/dubstylzh20/sets/72157627084749073/

It also turns out (i just found out) if you take out all the glass like i did you can use the front element as a wide angle converter on point 'n' shoot cameras ;)
 
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This may be a stupid question but is this specific only to this Canon lens or is there a Nikon alternative?
 
A friend of mine shoots nikon and i was thinking about that for him, i think it might possibly work on the old 28-80mm af nikon, as far as im aware it should work on any lens with a front focusing group (thats just my thoery, please dont hold me to that)
 
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